Feliz Navidad!

Dear friends and family,

Merry Christmas! Thanks for the love and support and prayers this Christmas season.

Things have been all over the place but I want to share my testimony with you of the temple. A key reason that I know that the priesthood power of God is restored to the Earth is that the temple is the happiest place on earth. We all feel closer to God as we go to the grounds, but our vision should be set on an eternal family, which requires our worthiness to enter. I am so thankful that I got to visit this week. I hope you get to see the photos!

Mario hasn't been reading the Book of Mormon and he doesn't want to quit smoking, so his baptism date dropped. We were feeling kind of crummy about it, but then he came to a baptism and felt the Spirit. He finally asked us for a Book of Mormon in English. He came to the visitor's center and felt the Spirit again. He's committed now to a new baptismal date, and I'm very sure that he'll make it. 

We found a family and they seem really cool! I'll tell you more next week because our first real lesson is tonight. If you are willing to pray for them, they are familia Marquez.

I've been having a lot of fun with #LightTheWorld! We used coupons and a left over gift card from a member to buy dinner for the homeless people that are always on this one street in our area. THen we went and there was no one, so we just left it on top of their stuff. Hope they got it :]

Love you! Have a great week and a Merry Christmas! Talk to you on New Years probably!

Hermana Maw and Carmen

Outside Universal Studios with Sister Parker and Sister Pearse (and Maw)! Carmen says these guys are BFFs!

Temple Trip :)

Humo-peace and harmony, until the fires attacked

Dear Friends and Family,

Thanks for the prayers of safety! We've been living in a cloud of smoke!

I've been loving the Isaiah chapters! I have a piece of advice for everyone: If you want to understand Isaiah, study it in a different language. You will be much more able to skip over the fluffy words because they probably only exist in English. 

Light the World has been making me so happy! I love being a missionary! If you skipped any of the days, try them now! The gospel is true every day of the year.

We were told we could stay inside on Tuesday because of the smoke, but we needed new investigators, so we went out anyway. We parked our bikes, knocked a few doors, and decided to try to find somewhere indoors to knock. We walked halfway home and nothing, so we abandoned our bikes and walked all the way home, and found rides to our evening appointments. #bikelife

Then our faith was rewarded! We found 11 new investigators this week! One of them is a really cool gold mine family that wants to talk about baptism at the church on Saturday! She excitedly left the room to bring us the English Book of Mormon someone had given her and tell us how she wished she could read it. We provided a spanish copy and she was very delighted!

Mario came to church. The other Mario dropped. Interesting fact! They are both Mario Martinez. That was hilarious!

Some of you saw me at Operation Gratitude. It is a really cool charity that sends packages to military servicemen, veterans, and military families. I have gone a few times, and I really support it! The founder said that she was inspired when she heard someone say it didn't matter whether he made it home or not. He hadn't gotten any packages, and no one cared about him. She said that she thought to herself, I know who cares! Americans care! And she started the charity. They just packages their 2 millionth box!

Thanks again for everything! I love you all! #LightTheWorld

Love,

Hermana Sleight

Deep in thought or sleep, same same. 

Smoky faces from the fires! 

#IlluminaElMundo

Dear Friends and Family,

Thanks for your support! How has #LightTheWorld gone for you?? It's working miracles here in NoHo!

So the last section of Chapter 10 of Preach My Gospel has a list of converting experiences and I have always thought that it was the secret to success. You'd think I'd have studied it more closely by now. But just this week, I highlighted everything in the section that the investigator needs to do and the missionary needs to do, and (to my shock and surprise) the investigator needs to attend Church, Pray, and Read the scriptures (CPR) and thus gain a spiritual conviciton of the gospel. Nice one, Hermana Sleight.

Story time quick!

Mario the YSA who wants to be in the family ward asked us if 15 minutes a day is sufficient to read the Book of Mormon. He's so cool!!!

Mario Martinez's eyes lit up when I told him that in order to be baptized, he just needed to promise to always remember Him, keep His commandments, and represent Jesus Christ to the rest of the world. He started to say how he does that!

I love being a missionary! Martin is okay. 

Love,

Carmen

 Happy Hermanas! (Hma. Maw, current companion)

An opportunity to give service! 

Nana sent a gingerbread man kit which they made and hung on the fridge. When he fell down, Hma. Maw turned his smile upside down and left him on the floor. Carmen got a kick out of that.